The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1887-09-29


Igo into another department, and find
that those great denominations of Chris
tians which have been most abused have
spread the most rapidly. No good man
was ever more Vilely maltreated than John
Wesley. His followers were hooted at and
maligned, and called by every detestable
name that internal ingenuity could invent,
but the hotter the persecution the more
rapid the spread Of that denomination, un-
til you know what o great host they have
become and what tremendous force for
God and the truth they are welding all the
world over. 1t was persecution that gave
Scotland to Presbyterianism. 1t was per-
secution which gave our own land first to
civil liberty and afterward to religious free
dom. Yea, l may go further back and say
it was persecution that gave the world the
great salvation of the Gospel. The ribald
mockery, the hungering and thirsting, the
unjust trial and ignominious death where
all the force of helPs fury was hurled
against the cross, was the introduction
of that religion which is yet to be the
earth's deliverance from guilt and suffer-
ing, and her everlasting enthronement
among the prinoipalities of Heaven.
The State has sometimes said 10 the
church: "Come let me take your hand
and will help you" What hos been
the result2 The church has gone back
and has lost it's estate of holiness and has
become ineffective. At other times the
State has said to the church: II will crush
you" What has been the result? After
the storms have spent their fury, the
church, 80 far from having lost any of its
force, has increased and is worth infinitely
more after the assault than before it. The
| church is far more indebted to the opposi-
ton of civil government than to its ap-
proval. The fires of the stake have only
been the torches which Christ held in His
hand, by the light Of which the church has
I marched to her present position. In the
sound of racks and implements of torture
hear the rumbling Of the wheels of the
Gospel chariot. Scaffolds of martyrlom
have been the stairs by which the church
has assembled. Aquafortis is the best test
of pure gold.
Furthermore, our subject impresses US
that sins will come to exposure. Long,
! long ago had these brothers sold Joseph
into Egypt. They had suppressed the
crime, and it was profound secret we'll
kept by the brothers. But suddenly the
secret is out. The old father hears that
his son is in Egypt, having been sold there
by the malice Of his own brothers. How
their cheeks must have burned and their
hearts sunk at the flaming ont of this sup
pressed crime. The smallest iniquity has
o thousand tongues and they will blab out
an exposure. Saul was sent to destroy the
Canaanites, their sheep and their oxen.
But when he got down there among the
pastures he saw some fine sheep and oxen
| too fat to kill, and 80 he thought he would
steal them. He drove them toward home,
but stopped to report to the prophet how
| we'll he had executed the commission,
when in the distance the sheep began to
bleat and the oxen to below. The secret
was out and Samuel said to the blushin0
and confounded Saul: SWhat means the
bleAting Of the sheep that l hear and the
lowing of the cattle?" Aye, my hearers,
you cannot keep an iniquity quiet. At
| just the wrong time the sheep will bleat
and the oxen will below. Achan cannot
steal the Babylonish garment without get
| ting stoned to death, nor Benedict Arnold
betray his country without having his
| neck stretched. Look over the public
arrests, these thieves, these burglars, these
adulterers, these counterfeiters, these
highwaymen, these assassins. They all
thought they could bury their iniquity 80
deep down that it would never come to
resurrection. But there was some shoe
that answered to the print in the sand,
some false keys found in possession, some
bloody knife that whispered of the deed,
and the public indignation, and the
anathema of outraged law hurled him into
the Tombs or hoisted him on the Qallows.
| At the close Of the battle between the
| Dauphin of France and the Helvetians,
Burchard Monk was 80 elated with the
victory that he lifted his helmet to look off
upon the field, when wounded soldier
hurled q stone that struck his uncovered
forehead and he fell. Sin will always
leave some point exposed, and there is no
safety in iniquity. Francis l., King of
France, was discussing how it was best to
| get his crmy into Italy. Amaril, the
court fool, sprang out from the corner and
said to the King and his staff officers: "You
had better be thinking how you will get
| your army back out of Italy after once you
have entered" In other words, it is easier
| for us 10 get into sin than to get out of it.
| Whitefield was riding on horseback in o
| lonely way with some missionary money in
o sack fastened to the saddle bags. A
| highwayman sprang out from the thicket
| and put his hand out toward the gold,
when Whitetield turned upon him and said:
| THAT belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ;
| touch it if you dare," and the villain fell
back empty handed into the thicket. Oh,
the power of conscience! If offended, it
becomes Gods avenging minister. Do not
think that you can hide any great and pro-
| tracted sin in your hearts. In An I'M
| guarded moment in will slip off of the lip,
or some slight occasion may for q moment
set ajar this door of hell that you wanted to
keep closed. But suppose that in this
life you hide it, and you get along with
shat transgression burning IN your heart,
| ms ship on fire within for days may him
| der the flame from bursting ont by keeping
down the hatchways; yet at last, in the
| Judgment, that iniquity will blaze out be-
fore the throne of God and the universe.
Furthermore, learn from this subject the
| inseparable connection between all events
however remote. Lord Hastings was be-
headed one year after he had caused the
death of the queens children, in the very
month, The very day, The very hour and the
very moment. There is wonderful precis-
ion m the Divine judgments. The uni
verse is only one thought OF God. Those
things which seen fragmentNry and isolated
| are only different parts of that one great
thought. How far apart seemed those two
| events-Joseph sold to the Arabian mer-
chants and the rulership of Egypt. Yet
/ you see in what mysterious way God con-
nected the two in one plan. So all events
are linked together. You who are aged
can look back and group together thou
sand things in yonr life that once seemed
isolated. One undivided chain of events
reached from the garden of Eden to the
cross Of Calvary, and thus up to Heaven.
There is relation between the smallest
insect that huns in the summer air and the
archangel on his throne. God can trace a
direct ancestral line from the blue joy that
last spring built its nest in a tree behind
the house, to some one of that flock Of
birds which, when Noah hoisted the ark's
window, with q whirl and dash of bright
wings went out to sing over Mt. Ararat.
| The tulips that bloomed this summer in the
flower bed we're nursed by last winters
snow flakes. The furthest star on one side